CLASSIFICATION AND ORIGIN OF INSECTS 1411 



except in ants' nests, though, on the other hand, there 

 are many communities of Lasius which possess none 

 of these beetles; and M. Lespes found that when he 

 placed Clavigers in a nest of ants which had none of 

 their own, the beetles were immediately killed and 

 eaten, the ants themselves being, on the other hand, 

 kindly received by other communities of the same 

 species. He concludes from these observations that 

 some communities of ants are more advanced in 

 civilization than others; the suggestion is no doubt 

 ingenious, and the fact curiously resembles the ex- 

 perience of navigators who have endeavored to in- 

 troduce domestic animals among barbarous tribes. 



The order Strepsiptera are a small but very re- 

 markable group of insects, parasitic on bees and 

 wasps. The larva is minute, six-legged, and very 

 active; it passes through its transformations within 

 the body of the bee or w r asp. The male and female 

 are very dissimilar. The males are minute, very ac- 

 tive, short-lived, and excitable, with one pair of large 

 membraneous wings. The females, on the contrary, 

 are almost motionless, and shaped very much like 

 a bottle ; they never quit the body of the bee, but only 

 thrust out the top of the bottle between the abdominal 

 rings of the bee. 



In the order Coleoptera, the larvae differ very 

 much in form. The majority are elongated, active, 

 hexapod, and more or less depressed; but those of the 

 Weevils, of Scolytus, etc., which are vegetable feeders, 

 and live surrounded by their food as, for instance, 

 in grain, nuts, etc. are apod, white, fleshy grubs, 

 not unlike those of bees and ants. The larvae of the 



